Maui: With passing of founders, next generation carries on Mama’s Fish House legacy

[ScoopKona]

Honestly, our meals at Merriman’s Kapalua usually wind up costing more than our Mama’s meals. Merriman’s is usually our priciest meal on Maui, but that beautiful sunset setting makes almost any price worth it for us. Back in February our Mama’s meal for two with wine was $330, but Merriman’s with a bottle of wine was $440.

And at Merriman's, you're at least eating Hawaiian produce. The extra expense is worth it, instead of paying extra so that a patagonian toothfish can be caught in Antarctica and then flown over from Argentina.

There isn't a Super J's on Maui (and there never would be). If I was offered a free meal at either Mama's or Super J's, I'd take Super J's, even though it costs a small fraction of Mama's. At least I know where the food came from.

 

[JIMinNC]

And at Merriman's, you're at least eating Hawaiian produce. The extra expense is worth it, instead of paying extra so that a patagonian toothfish can be caught in Antarctica and then flown over from Argentina.

There isn't a Super J's on Maui (and there never would be). If I was offered a free meal at either Mama's or Super J's, I'd take Super J's, even though it costs a small fraction of Mama's. At least I know where the food came from.

You focus on the one menu item from Antarctica, but when I look at their menu I see Hawaiian Mahi Mahi, Ahi, Kampachi, Kula vegetables, and Haleakala beef. The vast majority of menu items appear to be local items from the Hawaiian islands or the Pacific rim (like the New Zealand King Salmon). What’s wrong with adding a little variety?

 

[ScoopKona]

You focus on the one menu item from Antarctica, but when I look at their menu I see Hawaiian Mahi Mahi, Ahi, Kampachi, Kula vegetables, and Haleakala beef. The vast majority of menu items appear to be local items from the Hawaiian islands or the Pacific rim (like the New Zealand King Salmon). What’s wrong with adding a little variety?

Because it's silly to import fish from around the world when we have such great produce right here. It's an egregious waste to fly in mussels and sea bass when we're literally growing shellfish on the Big Island using cold water pumped up from 12,000 feet below. Hawaii has some of the best fruits and vegetables -- and incredible variety -- on the planet. We have excellent local crabs and shrimp. And of course we have an embarrassment of riches when it comes to fish. Butterfish? Literally tastes like it was sauteed with a mountain of butter. Almost no tourists ever eat it. Why? Who knows.

There are only a handful of restaurants that are using this cornucopia. Most of our restaurants are, frankly, sad. Tater tots? Seriously? It takes a special kind of person to fly more than 2,500 miles to get here, just to eat tater tots and corn dogs which were also brought in from more than 2,500 miles away.

The worst thing about this is that the customers are lining up to be taken advantage of. Instead of asking where the fish came from, they're buying frozen food, flown in from everywhere which isn't Hawaii. And paying egregious sums to do so. The absolute best thing about living here is the quality of the food we have. I have pulled tomatoes that were growing out of a rock wall by the side of the road, and they were the best tomatoes I have ever eaten. I scattered the seeds around my farm and now I have an infinite supply of them. That means the marinara and the salsa is ALSO the best I have ever eaten. If you're getting food at a restaurant, and it isn't the best you've ever had, you are being ripped off. You could have been eating local instead. Eating local also means that the people who grow/pick/catch/prepare the food are getting paid -- and not Argentinians and Kiwis. (Nothing against either group. But I'm going to be a booster for Hawaii since I live here.)

It's a sad reality that most people want frozen food dumped straight from a bag into a deep fryer. It's cheap. It's full of salt and fat. And that's just how they like it. That's why our restaurant landscape is so meager.

 

[melissy123]

Scoop, what are your recommendations for restaurants in Maui?

 

[ScoopKona]

Scoop, what are your recommendations for restaurants in Maui?

Besides Merriman's, I don't have any. I live on the Big Island and I don't have many recommendations here, either. The best course of action is to buy local fish and produce and cook it at the timeshare.

Hawaii's restaurants simply aren't very good. They have a captive market, which they clearly don't care about. I would much rather make my own food than eat at Ugly McHaole's Deep-Fried Mainland Emporeum.

The main thing is to check the menu and see where everything came from. Any restaurant which is sourcing locally is going to be proud of that and put it right on the menu. That's why you see items like "Bacon cured using Peggy's Ranch pork bellies" on menus. If you don't like that bacon, you could go to Peggy's Ranch and tell her what you thought of it. Nobody at Hormel cares what the customer thinks.

 

[JIMinNC]

@ScoopKona , I couldn't agree more that Hawaii has great local food and spectacular seafood, and we can tell fresh versus frozen at almost first bite, so I agree with almost everything you wrote in the two posts above, except for "The best course of action is to buy local fish and produce and cook it at the timeshare." We enjoy eating out too much to do that and don't want to cook much on vacation.

Having said that, almost all of our Hawaiian favorites - Merriman's, Mama's, Lahaina Grill, Longhi's, and Fleetwoods on Maui, The Beach House, Duke's, and Keokis on Kauai, and Merriman's on the Big Island - always have a wide selection of fresh locally-caught fish to choose from. Do most of them also offer non-Hawaiian items? Yes they do, but fresh Hawaiian fish and local vegetables and local beef are a staple on the menus at all of the places in the above list. I think most people like a little variety. I will say that the restaurant selection on the Big Island is not up to Maui and Kauai standards from our perspective. Other than Merriman's in Waimea, there really isn't a must do place for us there. We'll generally eat at Roy's Waikoloa due to the convenient location to where we stay, but's it's not that memorable. The Hawaiian Roy's are more unique than the mainland franchises, though. Those are pretty much cookie-cutter.

We also love to eat fresh low country South Carolina seafood when we're at our condo on Hilton Head Island, but we like variety, so we'll also eat at some of the great Italian restaurants on the island, sometimes we'll go for a steak, and sometimes Mexican or something else. We shouldn't have to travel to Mexico or Italy just to eat that kind of food. So eating local is great, but we do like to mix it up some, even in Hawaii.

 

[rickandcindy23]

Can we afford it? - yes.
Would my husband be happy? NO!

Right there with you. We can afford it, but we would not do it again. Partly because the two times we went, we went with Rick's stepmom, and she is no longer with us, and partly because I don't think it's all that special for the price you pay.

 

[ScoopKona]

We also love to eat fresh low country South Carolina seafood when we're at our condo on Hilton Head Island, but we like variety, so we'll also eat at some of the great Italian restaurants on the island, sometimes we'll go for a steak, and sometimes Mexican or something else. We shouldn't have to travel to Mexico or Italy just to eat that kind of food. So eating local is great, but we do like to mix it up some, even in Hawaii.

But would you eat Cream of Wheat at a restaurant instead of local Marsh Hen grits? What if most of the restaurants were selling Cream of Wheat instead of local grits because it made them a few more dollars? And what if none of the visitors seemed to care about that?

"Food's food. I like the cream of wheat because it's cheaper. It's no big deal."

And what if the local restaurant had about two-thirds local dishes and items -- billing itself as an epitome of Low Country cuisine -- and the other third was Nathan's Hot Dogs, Philly Cheese Steak, and Chicago Deep Dish? All sourced from Guatemala, Senegal and Norway?

When I go to Germany, I eat German food. When I go to France, I eat French food. And the same with Italy. And I don't worry about where the food came from because they're much better about sourcing locally than we are.

And then there's the issue of quality. Especially with the vegetables. They're so much better than agricorp vegetables. It's cheaper to freeze par-cooked agricorp food and send it to Hawaii than it is to buy local. That makes the restaurant owner a few extra dollars. But it's a false economy which is hurting the local economy.

The only way this will ever change is if customers get noisy about it.

 

[ScoopKona]

@melissy123
Here's a blog post about how to eat local on Maui. I would gladly eat at every single one of these places -- particularly that food truck.

Eating Local In Hawaii

Maui is harvesting a clean, colorful and flavorful bounty of produce. There are many options for eating local in Hawaii, here are a few of our favorites!

bossfrog.com

 

[JIMinNC]

But would you eat Cream of Wheat at a restaurant instead of local Marsh Hen grits? What if most of the restaurants were selling Cream of Wheat instead of local grits because it made them a few more dollars? And what if none of the visitors seemed to care about that?

None of the places we frequent in the low country of SC would do that - as far as we know, of course. But if we found out a place was doing that, we wouldn't go. And our experience in Hawaii is that most, if not all, of the places we frequent offer a lot of local options.

And what if the local restaurant had about two-thirds local dishes and items -- billing itself as an epitome of Low Country cuisine -- and the other third was Nathan's Hot Dogs, Philly Cheese Steak, and Chicago Deep Dish? All sourced from Guatemala, Senegal and Norway?

If that hypothetical were true, as long as the restaurant had good quality low-country options in that first two-thirds, I could care less if they offered a third with non-local stuff for the people who don't like low country food. Some people eat the same thing wherever they go, but that's them. We spent a week in Paris right before Thanksgiving and ate at lots of local Brasseries and Bistros. Most of the Brasseries offered some great French options, but they almost all had American Cheeseburgers on the menu too. I suppose that's to keep the Americans with less varied palettes happy. In fact, the husband from another couple in a small group walking tour we took actually ordered a cheeseburger for lunch at a small sidewalk Brasserie. To each his own, but as long as they had good French options, I could care less if they also offer other options for people who don't like French food.

 

[slip]

@melissy123
Here's a blog post about how to eat local on Maui. I would gladly eat at every single one of these places -- particularly that food truck.

Eating Local In Hawaii

Maui is harvesting a clean, colorful and flavorful bounty of produce. There are many options for eating local in Hawaii, here are a few of our favorites!

bossfrog.com

I have been to The Mill House many times and it is good, but I like many places. I think you have have convinced me to try the Antarctic Toothfish when I am at Mama's in April.

Where do you get your numbers on "almost no tourists eat Butterfish"?

 

[geist1223]

When in Hawaii we eat a lot of lunches at Food Trucks. We shop at Farmers' Markets for Fruit and Vegetables. Patti picks up local fish, pork, beef, and fowl for dinners.

 

[JIMinNC]

Where do you get your numbers on "almost no tourists eat Butterfish"?

And what is Hawaiian Butterfish anyway? I Googled it, and all I could find were references to Butterfish as Black Cod or Sablefish that appear to be native to Japan, Alaska, and the west coast of North America. I could find no info on Google that suggest it's a native Hawaiian fish. Is there another type of Butterfish native to Hawaii?

 

[slip]

And what is Hawaiian Butterfish anyway? I Googled it, and all I could find were references to Butterfish as Black Cod or Sablefish that appear to be native to Japan, Alaska, and the west coast of North America. I could find no info on Google that suggest it's a native Hawaiian fish. Is their another type of Butterfish native to Hawaii?

Scoop will answer your question.

 

[Luanne]

I have been to The Mill House many times and it is good, but I like many places. I think you have have convinced me to try the Antarctic Toothfish when I am at Mama's in April.

Where do you get your numbers on "almost no tourists eat Butterfish"?

Mill House is gone. There is now a Cafe O' Lei at the Tropical Plantation.

 

[slip]

Mill House is gone. There is now a Cafe O' Lei at the Tropical Plantation.

I was last there in 2019. Good to know since its a long drive from Kihei. .
I had no experience with the other couple in Scoops article.

 

[Luanne]

I was last there in 2019. Good to know since its a long drive from Kihei. .
I had no experience with the other couple in Scoops article.

Didn't read Scoop's article.

Never went to the Mill House, even though we did go to the Plantation several times. I've hear the Cafe O' Lei there is good. Maybe we'll try it next trip.

 

[slip]

Didn't read Scoop's article.

Never went to the Mill House, even though we did go to the Plantation several times. I've hear the Cafe O' Lei there is good. Maybe we'll try it next trip.

I like Cafe O'Lei too. Our next trip is with our daughter who has never been to Maui so everything will be new to her. Besides Mama's we'll let her pick places.

 

[Luanne]

I like Cafe O'Lei too. Our next trip is with our daughter who has never been to Maui so everything will be new to her. Besides Mama's we'll let her pick places.

How fun to have your daughter with you to experience Maui for the first time. We're hoping our old daughter will be able to join us for part of our time on Maui in March. She came with us last year.

 

[slip]

How fun to have your daughter with you to experience Maui for the first time. We're hoping our old daughter will be able to join us for part of our time on Maui in March. She came with us last year.

It will be fun. She likes traveling so we know she will have a good time. Our son may come but he doesn't travel that much. He always has a good time when he does but it's hard to get him going.

We'll just have to make sure our daughter doesn't fill up every second with things to do. Maybe she is slowing down a bit now that she is older though. She even mentioned that she will probably come back to Molokai with us for a while. She's been here before and knows there is not much here to do. She can work from anywhere so we'll see how long she stays.

 

[ScoopKona]

And what is Hawaiian Butterfish anyway? I Googled it, and all I could find were references to Butterfish as Black Cod or Sablefish that appear to be native to Japan, Alaska, and the west coast of North America. I could find no info on Google that suggest it's a native Hawaiian fish. Is there another type of Butterfish native to Hawaii?

Walu walu in Hawaiian. It's great. I buy some any time I see it available.

 

[JIMinNC]

Walu walu in Hawaiian. It's great. I buy some any time I see it available.

This?

Hawaiian Walu

I found this statement interesting:

"Because walu contains undigestible wax esters, special care must be taken to serve this fish in smaller portions (4-6oz.) Consuming walu in excess may result in some gastrointestinal distress. Use caution."

Hmm....

 

[ScoopKona]

This?

Yes, that.

Never had any distress.

 

[slip]

Walu walu in Hawaiian. It's great. I buy some any time I see it available.

I have had that in traditional Lau Lau a few times. The butterfish is more of a reference to the preparation not the species.

 

[davidvel]

If only we could all be so perfect and pious as the great coffee grower, knowing all and the dictator of what we must all do and eat. Give me a break, this thread has run its course, like most that he comments in.